October Reader’s Advisory Adventure

One of the things I enjoy when Halloween is on the way is the proliferation of book lists for October reading – for scary reading, for fall reading, for Shirley Jackson-esque reading, for creepy reading instead of scary reading, etc. I read horror all the time, so, October lists are really a good way for me to find books I haven’t heard about already or a better description that makes me want to actually read books I have heard of. However, I’ve never done an October list myself…until now.  I have some sections for different kinds of October reading and they may all be familiar territory, like many of the October lists are for me, but keep in mind the main reason I’ve decided to create this list is as an excuse to post way more pictures from my piggie pumpkin photoshoots across the ages.

Like this one! It’s Finny!

 

First up is a short list of collections of short stories that are season suitable, each title is a link to the post I made about the book:

October Dreams – Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish, eds. – A huge – HUGE – collection which even has its own list at the end.

October Dreams is a great collection for exploring all literary things Halloween like Salem explores my graveyard set up and notes he is the same size as the hearse.

 

Women of Darkness – Kathryn Ptacek, ed. – A great one with all female authors.

There are many ladypigs of darkness in my herd, but here’s Ozma literally in the dark.

 

Silver Scream – David J. Schow, ed. – This one has some doozies.

Jump into a short story collection like Snuffy jumping into the fun house with Thorfy.

 

Part 2, the second short list, this time of Young Adult from the olden times of 1989, 1990, and the year 2000, that take place over Halloween and of course, are flawless in every way:

Trick or Treat – Richie Tankersley Cusick – When you move into a house where someone got murdered, this is what happens on Halloween.

Danger Crumples used to live in a house where someone was murdered and is flawless in every way.

 

The Halloween Party – R.L. Stine – Where nicknaming goes awry. Also, this post has a photo of Twiglet from the very first pumpkin photoshoot I ever did.

Twiglet’s mother, Pammy, during the first pumpkin photoshoot.

 

Amy – Samantha Lee – Who needs to research US Halloween? This author, but it’s also fun.

“You mean it’s not about endlessly having your picture taken with small gourds in stuff made for cats?” Snuffy’s close.

 

Short list the third, books that were creepy enough, but did not entirely give me the suspensefuls so I had to finish them right away or seriously creeped me out:

The Ring – Koji Suzuki – The movie was very scary, the book was not as much. Get away from my TV.

Summer of Night – Dan Simmons – My favorite of his that I’ve read, also a good read for summer, but, whatever.

Murderface and Pickles were ready for the first pumpkin photoshoot. To be intimidating, but still cute.

 

Borderland – S.K. Epperson – That poor goat.

The Keeper – Sarah Langan – It’s harder to breathe just thinking about this one.

Salem is very dignified in front of this haunted house because he didn’t get too scared by these books.

 

And finally…the final list…books that actually did scare me (for whatever reason) or made it to the part of my brain that won’t let me stop reading out of needing it to end and be less paranoia inducing:

Skin of the Soul –  Lisa Tuttle,ed. – Yes, this is a short story collection, a very well edited one that got under my skin.

Ladies are really good at writing horror stories. Peregrine knows why, so do I.

 

My Best Friend’s Exorcism – Grady Hendrix – Totally suspensefuls inducing, also confusing because I do not trust Phil Collins to work in this way. Also, my main issue with this book is solved in Goddess of Filth by V. Castro, which is also a tale of possession and the review goes up this month.

Horace is not paying attention while Ozma is trying to ask him how he feels about Phil Collins.

 

Long Lankin – Lindsey Barraclough – This is newerish YA, but it was super damp and creepy.

Hen Wen is stately in the face of possible damp.

 

The Ritual – Adam Nevill – Speaking of damp… This is another old school ancient kind of horror.

The Ritual can only be accompanied by a corpsepaint pig, so, here’s Thorfy in a coffin shaped loaf pan. We’re very serious here.

 

The Graveyard Apartment – Mariko Koike – I know a scary basement and this had one hellaciously scary basement and a solid level of dread.

For Snuffy, eating the coffins is a good way to get rid of the potential graveyard based menace.

 

Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This is the best book called Hex I’ve read and it had the most witchiness, which I don’t think is a coincidence.

Why yes, we did get the witch hat cat scratcher from Target this year for one of the photoshoot set ups. Thorfy nibbled it first.

 

Wylding Hall – Elizabeth Hand – This is so short and so scary it is hard for me to understand why it is so scary. I know it’s not just my personal experience with musicians.

Danger Crumples thinks I need to just let that go and solely be ensorcelled by guinea pigs. Done.

 

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson – This is my number one, my Duke of New York, of being scared and not being able to sleep and having nightmares after reading. The Haunting of Hill House is terrifying and it’s not obvious how much so until you try to fall asleep after reading it or do fall asleep after reading it. There’s so much dark there. Shirley Jackson and this book are considered classics of horror for good reason. There is honestly no overrating when it comes to Shirley Jackson. She’s the good stuff. And as a side note, my attached review of this mentions nothing about how scary it was to read for me. I got stuck on being short and talking about how good the dialogue is and the wit – and that is part of how this book gets so scary, it’s got wit that distracts from the scary stuff winding its way into your head.

My first Shirley-character named pig, Merricat, my other A number 1, Duke of New York. Plus you can see part of Pere’s nose, she plays Shirley in a painting I haven’t been able to get an image sorted of for the computer yet.

 

Thus ends this adventure into reader’s advisory.

Happy Halloween Season from this librarian and the peegs past and present! Here’s Thorfy in the coffin loaf pan (again).